New Delhi, Mar 11 (PTI & Reuters): Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal secretary P.C. Parakh and three others were on Wednesday summoned as accused by a special court in a coal scam case pertaining to allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005.

They will have to appear before the court on April 8.

Judge Bharat Parashar of the special court handling cases of the Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned the six accused for the alleged offences punishable under provisions of the Indian Penal Code relating to criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The former Prime Minister has not been charged with any crime but is being investigated for criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption, a lawyer for the prosecution said on condition of anonymity.

”I am upset, but this is a part of life,” Singh told reporters at parliament, where he is a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Besides these three, the court also summoned Hindalco, its officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D. Bhattacharya as accused in the case.

The case pertains to allocation of Talabira II coal block in Odisha to Hindalco in 2005, when Singh was prime minister and also holding the coal portfolio.

The CBI, in its first information report, had named Parakh, Birla, Hindalco Industries Ltd and other unknown persons for alleged offences under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and under provisions of the PCA.

However, the agency had later on filed a closure report in the court, which had refused to accept it.

The court, in its order of December 16 last year, had directed the CBI to examine former Prime Minister Singh and some top officials of then Prime Minister Office, including Singh's then Principal Secretary T.K.A. Nair and then private secretary B.V.R. Subramanyam.

Parakh and Hindalco have denied any wrongdoing.

Most coal block awards made by Singh's government, which ran India for a decade, were overturned late last year by the Supreme Court, which ruled the process illegal.

The case, known as “Coalgate”, came to light in 2012 after a government auditor said the exchequer had lost as much as $33 billion because of collusion between officials and private firms to depress the cost coal field awards.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which ousted the Singh administration last May, is now re-auctioning the fields.

Auctions of the first 32 blocks have brought in a projected $32 billion, Coal secretary Anil Swarup told Reuters.